India’s animation space has been one of the driving forces in Indian content as animation is well-loved by kids and kids at heart as it allows viewers to go places where live-action content can’t reach. Murtuza Kutianawalla, Country Head of Distribution and Syndication at Toonz Media Group, talked about India’s animation space in the Television Asia Plus webinar “South Asia: A Look at India’s Content Space” held on 20 January.

India’s introduction to animation started 30 years ago, beginning with Russian shows being the only source of content. Disney then dominated the space with the kind of productions and storytelling that connected with kids and families across the world. Murtuza shared that Indian public service broadcaster Doordarshan was the only channel back in the day that allowed them this viewing experience. 

The arrival and dominance of Cartoon Network in the country in 1995 made way for significant growth with the arrival of other channels like Animax, Nickelodeon, Hungama and Toonz. Murtuza commented, “The great thing about these networks was that they already had a lot of shows and cartoons that were popular in other parts of the world, and one thing that resonates with India is family culture.” 

Webinar panellists included Simran Hoon, CEO of The Q who gave a talk about Tapping Into India’s Free-To-Air Market, and Dhruv Sinha, Senior Vice President for International Business, Marketing and Syndication at Reliance Entertainment who talked about International Investments in Regional Content.

Watch the video below: